Friday, July 18, 2008

Looking a gorgeous summer photos on other bloggers' sites in the northern hemisphere has me pining for summer! So rather than stare out my window at the rain and cloud, I thought I'd look back at some of the gorgeous summer photos I took earlier in the year.

Arthur's Pass is a village on New Zealand's South Island. The highway running through the pass is one of a few places where you can get through the Southern Alps to cross between the west and east sides of the island.

We spent a couple of days there, enjoying the scenery back in March.

Along the highway, there are areas where limestone boulders are artfully strewn across the mountainscapes. Some of these areas are hugely popular for bouldering, and they have tried to limit the number of bolts getting put into rocks by directing people to specific areas.

I thought this particular boulder looked like a part-man part-pumpkin. What do you think? Here's G showing off his climbing skills. (Yeah, ok, I rotated the photo by 90 degrees...) This is a view of the tiny village of Arthur's Pass, taken from the track up to Avalanche Peak.

This is the Arthur's Pass post office. How cute is that?

The track up Avalanche Peak is the only one in the area that's marked above the bushline. So most tramping in this area is for experienced alpine trampers only. We stuck with daywalks.

Here are some folks tackling the ridge to the summit of Avalanche Peak. I got this just before the clouds descended on us.

There are tons of keas around Arthur's Pass, so they're very careful about leaving stuff outside since the birds have a habit of tearing things apart just for fun.

Ah, the lazy days of summer... I can't wait until they return to my hemisphere!

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Living Abroad in New Zealand

Maple Kiwi's Profile

Michelle Waitzman is the author of "Sex in a Tent: a wild couple's guide to getting naughty in nature"
Michelle is from Toronto, Canada, and spent seven wonderful years living in New Zealand and exploring the amazing wilderness there. She has now returned to Canada and its equally amazing (but more spread out) adventures.
She loves spending time in the great outdoors - hiking, backpacking (or 'tramping' as they call it in NZ), and sea kayaking.
Michelle also wrote "Moon Living Abroad in New Zealand", a guide for those who would like to follow in her footsteps and move to New Zealand.
Contact Michelle at loveinatent@hotmail.com